The Influence of Vocal Emotional Expression on Memory for Communication Content - A Bahavioral Study

Abstract

The present study investigated the role of vocal emotions for memory. To this end, participants encoded visually presented words either in silence, or while hearing to-be-ignored vocalizations. In the first experiment, neutral but not negative vocal distracters produced a verbal memory decrement relative to the silent condition. Negative and neutral distracters were remembered equally well. In the second experiment, verbal memory was comparable for positive and neutral distracters relative to silence. Again, there was no difference in memory for positive and neutral distracters. However, both were on average better remembered than distracters in the first experiment. These results are interpreted in an ?emotion as behavioral disposition? framework (Lang, et al., 1990). Negative distracters, activating an avoidance motivation, are ignored more easily, enabling better verbal memory than neutral distracters. Positive sounds, activating an approach motivation, enhance processing of both targets and distracters. A third experiment explored whether vocalizations change the affective representation of accompanying target words in semantic memory. Valence ratings of words previously studied with a positive vocalization were rated as more positive than words previously studied with a neutral vocalization. Together, the present experiments highlight a range of effects emotional vocal expressions can have on interaction partners. Apart from modulating the likelihood of remembering conversation content and speaker expression, vocalizations may also influence listener attitudes.